Steelbacks know they must stop going it alone

Northants batsman Josh Cobb says not having enough players in form at the same time is a key reason for the Steelbacks' struggle this season.

There have been several impressive individual displays – the latest of them Cobb’s career-best 103 against Birmingham Bears last Sunday – but they have been isolated contributions that haven’t delivered victories.

Northants, who have yet to claim a victory in this year's Vitality Blast, now have four matches to avoid their worst season in T20 history. Only one match was won in both 2004 and 2012.

“We’ve had a few performances this year that deserved to be on the winning side,” said Cobb. “Unfortunately there hasn’t been enough support from others and we’ve had a terrible run.

“All year we haven’t had enough guys in form at any one time.

"Form has come and gone, we’ve had key players missing, we’ve got off to bad starts and everything has just spiralled away from us.

"But we’ve now got to try to get back on track and take some positives into the winter.

“It needs a couple of people to take the game by the scruff of the neck and get a victory and then hopefully confidence will return and we can still get a few wins before the end of the competition.

"We need to get something on the board just for confidence in the dressing room for the back end of the season."